Methods and systems for electric vehicle (EV) charging, charging unit (CU) interfaces, auxiliary batteries, and remote access and user notifications

摘要

Charge units for charging an electric vehicle and methods for cloud access and programming of data for charge units are provided. In one example, a charging unit is connectable to a charge source (e.g., electricity) and has an connector (cord) for coupling the charge unit to the electric vehicle. The charge unit includes a port for interfacing with and charging an auxiliary battery. A display has a graphical user interface (GUI) for providing charge status information of a main battery of a vehicle and/or the auxiliary battery when connected to the port of the charge unit. The charge unit further including a communications port for providing data of the charge unit to the cloud services, for access and control by a remote computer. An advertising system will serve ads to the charge units, vehicle displays and/or the remote computers while charging or after charging.

主权项

1. A charging unit for charging an electric vehicle, comprising:
a connector of the charging unit for coupling the charging unit to the electric vehicle; a port for interfacing with and charging an auxiliary battery; a display having a graphical user interface (GUI) for providing charge status of a main battery of the electric vehicle and charge status of the auxiliary battery; and a communications port for interfacing with cloud services over the Internet, the communications port defined for providing data of the charge unit to the cloud services, the cloud services including one or more servers for enabling access of data and control of functions of the charge unit by a computer over the Internet; wherein the port provides electrical charge and exchanges data between the auxiliary battery and the charge unit; wherein the charge status of one or both of the main battery and the auxiliary battery, during charging and after completion of charging, is accessible for viewing from the display of the charging unit, a vehicle display, or a display of the computer; wherein the cloud services includes a database of users, the users being associated user accounts, each user account configured in association with data regarding a respective electric vehicle and any charge status of the respective electric vehicle.